| Rice, a major carbohydrate staple, is consumed as a cooked product. At home, rice is cooked in a 2:1 water-to-rice ratio; however, industrially rice is cooked in excess water with variable amounts of water amongst companies. Preliminary research has shown that different water-to-rice ratios and milling durations affect cooked rice properties. The research objective is to study the influence of water-to-rice ratios and milling durations on solids leached, water uptake and volumetric expansion of rice during cooking. Two cultivars of Arkansas rice, Francis and Jupiter, were milled for 10, 20, and 30 s with a McGill ;Methods for measuring water uptake, volumetric expansion and solids leached can be time consuming and subjective to the researcher. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is prevalent in rice analysis through predictions such as surface lipid content, amylose content and lipid content. The second objective in this study is to determine the feasibility in using NIR to predict water uptake, volumetric expansion and solids leached. One hundred and fifty rice samples were milled for 30 s then scanned using NIR. The samples were cooked in a 10:1 water-to-rice ratio and the cooked rice was measured for water uptake and volumetric expansion. The cooking water was cooled, scanned using NIR then dried and measured for solids leached. Correlations were made between milled rice NIR and cooked rice measurements as well as between rice water NIR and the lab analyses. The greatest correlation was found between cooked rice water NIR and solids leached (0.795). In summary, it was found it is not feasible to use NIR to predict cooked rice water uptake, volumetric expansion, and solids leached. |
